It was on this map that I discovered something that might shed some light on why a certain highway in Jefferson County is called Outer Loop.
The county road map shows a proposed ``cross-county road'' that clockwise starts at US 42 and ends just past Bardstown Road, connecting with the then-existing Cross-County Road (KY 1065). The portion of the route (KY 841) between US 42 and Bardstown Road remained pretty much the same, but the plans since changed and the route was diverted south of the Cross-County Road and was eventually completed a couple decades later as the Gene Snyder Freeway, but the existing Cross-County Road was renamed Outer Loop anyway. Go figure.
As of 1963 the portion of the freeway between Shelbyville Road and I-64 was already complete, and was marked on this map as Outer Loop.
I like making lame jokes every once in a while about the Outer Loop, signed as KY 1065, almost becoming I-1065, except that four-digit state highway numbers in urban areas are more a formality than anything else. :)
Information about I-180 and other 3-digit interstates is available from Scott Oglesby's web site.
Andrew Field maintains a more comprehensive site devoted to Wyoming's I-180.
A NEW SYMBOL ON OUR HIGHWAYS
This route marker represents our rapidly growing 41,000-mile National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. This completely new road system offers a safe, high-speed network of controlled-access highways with bypasses around or expressways through all cities and towns en route. It will change our historic travel patterns radically in many cases. Driving time for many trips will be cut in half and it will save thousands of lives each year. Now about 40% complete nationally, it is expected that the system will be half finished late in 1964. Many important urban expressways are or soon will be in use, and longer connected sections in rural areas are opening each month. Completion nation-wide is expected in 1972, much earlier in several states. More than 2,000 miles of toll roads will be included in the system. These new route markers are shown [I-95 SHIELD] on this map.
Federal aid for Interstate construction amounts to about 90% of the total cost, and this comes entirely from Federal highway-user taxes. The remaining 10% is contributed by the stats. No Federal funds will be used to pay for maintenance of the system.
| The road now known as | is marked as |
|---|---|
| US 31E in Kentucky | US 37 |
| US 31W in Kentucky | US 31 |
| IN 111 from New Albany to IN 60 | IN 33 |
| IN 111 from New Albany to New Boston | IN 133 |